which must be absorbed by the water pro-
ducers or distributed among potentially
unsupportive stakeholders.
In contrast, in China’s vast rural areas,
water reclamation is in its infancy. The
small population density and unstructured
layout of residential buildings have led to
varied wastewater discharge methods. In
towns trying to recycle wastewater, the con-
struction of small-scale wastewater collec-
tion pipeline networks will be the first step.
Instead of the large, centralized treatment
facilities in cities, rural areas will require
small, decentralized treatment systems
serving each local area.
To meet its wastewater reclamation
goals, China must increase and restructure
its investments. The national government
must fund new and upgraded wastewater
infrastructure. Public-private partnerships,
a government financing model used to
encourage companies to participate in the
construction of public infrastructure, have
decades-long payback periods for waste-
water treatment, a heavy capital burden
for companies. To correct this, the govern-
ment has proposed alternative methods of
project financing, such as real estate invest-
ment trusts, national green development
funds, and central banks’ environmental
low-cost funding support. Successful waste-
water reuse will require the coordination of
central and local governments, the super-
vision of the environmental protection
bureaus, the participation of the scientific
community, and the support of society. It
will also depend on flexible market-based
approaches to incentivize market players,such as tax incentives and low interest rate
funding for companies investing in the
technology and water price adjustments to
manage higher production costs.
Yanxia Zhang, Jiazhen Huo, Xiaojin Zheng*
School of Economics and Management,
Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
*Corresponding author.
Email: [email protected]REFERENCES AND NOTES- The State Council the People’s Republic of China, “The
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10.1126/science.abm6738Noise pollution disrupts
freshwater cetaceans
Anthropogenic noise pollution is an emerg-
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PHOTO: COSTFOTO/BARCROFT MEDIA/GETTY IMAGESAn aerial photo shows a sewage treatment plant in Hebei Province, China. China plans to address water scarcity by scaling up its wastewater treatment capacity.
Edited by Jennifer Sills
Wastewater: China’s
next water source
In the face of growing water scarcity, China
has tried to cope by setting strict regula-
tions to control total water consumption
( 1 ), limiting agricultural and industrial
water consumption ( 2 ), and moving water
around the country through the huge
South-to-North Water Diversion Project
( 3 , 4 ). However, increasing water demand
and decreasing water quality are forcing
China to look for additional solutions.
Recognizing the potential of wastewater
as a water source, China has set ambitious
goals for the amount of wastewater it can
reclaim for use: more than 35% of waste-
water discharge in the Beijing-Tianjin-
Hebei region and more than 25% in prefec-
ture-level water-scarce cities by 2025 ( 5 ).
In 2019, China’s urban wastewater dis-
charge was about 75 billion cubic meters
( 2 ), and the amount of reclaimed water
was less than 10 billion cubic meters, less
than 15% of urban wastewater discharge.
However, China’s cities are well positioned
to increase their reclaimed water produc-
tion. Newer cities are already equipped
with modern water management facilities,
which handle water supply, drainage, and
sanitation as components of a central-
ized, integrated system ( 6 ). In addition to
increasing the capacity of current wastewa-
ter treatment systems, the primary obstacle
in cities is the high cost of water treatment,
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